Black Clouds, Silver Linings

Well, I'm happy to report that I survived the tri. During the swim, I wasn't entirely sure that survival would be an option. I'll start at the beginning ...

As soon as the half marathon was over, I packed up the car ...

and headed for Marshall and my cousin Cindy's house. We had a yummy tortellini pesto dinner ...

and then made our way to Canby and my cousin Nancy's house, where we spent the night (to be closer to Lake Cochrane, SD where the tri was taking place). Transition opened at 6:00 AM. I was plenty nervous and wanted to get there early to get the lay of the land and try to ease the jitters. I got there as the sun was coming up.

Storm clouds were brewing to the SW, and I saw flashes of lightning. I was secretly hoping that the swim would be cancelled. I just had no confidence in my ability to swim in open water, having not donned my wetsuit in 2 years and also not having done any open water swimming in the same period. No brick workouts. No transition practice. This could be ugly. And I was plenty nervous.

After getting my spot ready, there was nothing to do but wait. Seeing that most of the participants had tri bikes made me even more nervous. But as hilly as the course was, I'm not sure this turned out to be a big advantage. They announced that the water temperature was 69.1 degrees (brrr!!!) and wetsuits were definitely legal. I'd be wearing mine for sure, both for warmth and buoyancy. I got body marked on my arms and calves (she put mine on the SIDE of my legs whereas everyone else's were on the back of the calf).

The skies were still threatening so during the pre-race announcements they told us to be patient please as they were checking the radar ... there were still lightning flashes in the distance. At the 11th hour they decided that the race would start on time. Or so they thought. At 8:00, as the men were waiting in the water, for some reason they shot the gun before the timing system was activitated and the guys took off. The officials started yelling at them to stop. Well, it's pretty hard to hear someone yelling when you're swimming. So one of the two jet skis finally had to go out in front of 3 swimmers to get them to stop and come back to the start. They decided that they'd start the women first and give the guys a chance to catch their breath and start them later. So at 8:05AM, we were off.

Right away I got swam over (Cindy saw it too) and swam into someone's feet and got a mouth full of water. And I just never recovered. I felt panic-y and hyperventilated the whole time I was in the water. I momentarily thought about quitting (one gal did quit after the swim) but kept going, having to do sidestroke and breast stroke. Every time I tried to do the crawl and put my face in that cold pea-green water I just freaked. I really regretted not having donned my wetsuit or done any open water swimming in the last two years. Finally after 12+ minutes, I made to shore. I was humiliated. We had a 2-foot wooden wall to climb up in the process of heading to T1.

Later in the day when the weather was GORGEOUS

I quickly made my way to my bike to take off my wetsuit (and that didn't happen quickly) and into my bike shoes, socks and helmet.

Then I was off to ride the 15.5 mile loop course.

I had issues on the ride too. It rained ... hard. Felt like pellets at times. I had on my sunglasses and with the rain they were hard to see out of. So I finally just took them off and in the process, one of the lenses popped out. Drat. But I retrieved it and popped the whole mess in my back pocket. The bike course was VERY hilly. I don't think there was even an 1/8 mile that was flat anywhere on the course. And something was rubbing on my front wheel but I didn't want to stop and check on it. About midway through the ride there was a huge lightning bolt ahead of us. I later heard from Cindy that they considered stopping us before the run, to resume later but let us go. And with the rain and slippery roads and feeling skittish about flatting, I could only average 18.2 mph on the ride. :-( But I did pass quite a few people which was fun. After all, virtually everyone was ahead of me getting out of the water.

After getting back to T2, I dropped off the bike and headed out for the run. Yippee. Getting closer to being done. The run course was again VERY hilly. I don't know what to compare it to around here. Maybe Elton Hills Drive on the east end, but the hills were tighter and higher. It was up, down, up down, all around the lake. And to top it off, my shoe came untied. Socks were soaking wet, but that didn't seem to be an issue. After 4.4 miles around, I was done.

7.52 pace running. Not great, but all I could do on that tough course. 1:39:55 finish time. Got out of the water in last place for females by 4 minutes. Ended up in 4th place and won my age division (but there were no age group awards, contrary to the website.) :-( Glad I did it, but learned a few lessons in the process.

Thank you to my cousins Nancy and Cindy for being there to cheer me on.

Carrie Tollefson was there cheering on her sister, brother-in-law, husband and father who were all participating. She remembered me (from the River Runner banquet). I was thrilled!! And she was happy to pose for a couple of pictures.

Then it was off to the cabin for a wonderful brunch with my relatives and a lovely and relaxing pontoon ride around the lake.

Later in the day, it was back to Marshall to Cindy's house where we were treated to a visit from more relatives including my cousin Wendy and husband Bill and Wendy's parents Wanda and Huns (Adrian). A very nice end to a fun day.

Tomorrow, I'm planning to run the Gamehaven course at 6:15 PM. Feel free to join us. I'm hoping to get some cookies made.

I ran 10.58 miles this morning in Marshall. Rode 40.63 miles tonight. Tired now.

Enough for today. Good night.